Mr. Speaker, last week, Constable Francis Deschênes was providing assistance to some motorists near Memramcook, New Brunswick, when a collision took his life.
This is a huge loss, particularly for Nova Scotia RCMP, for New Brunswick, and for Constable Deschênes' hometown, Sainte-Anne-de-Madawaska.
Constable Deschênes joined the RCMP in 2004 and spent his career mainly in Nova Scotia, most recently in Amherst. He is remembered as a hero for using his vehicle to push a car out of the path of an oncoming train near Truro in 2008. He was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee medal in 2013.
We extend our most sincere condolences to his family and friends, as well as to his colleagues and fellow RCMP officers, who had planned on joining him for Police and Peace Officers' National Memorial Day, this coming Sunday, to remember police officers fallen in the line of duty. They will be remembering him, instead, with sadness but also with pride—as will we all.